Ship Full o' Pirates

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I’m still having so much fun learning how to cook with my homemade solar ovens.  This is the most cooking fun I’ve had in a good while.  I still can’t hardly believe it’s possible to cook for free.  

Yesterday I made Chile Rellenos in one oven and a Carrot, Squash, Chocolate Cake in the other.  They both came out fabulous.  The cake was kinda more like brownies than cake, but I’m not complaining, and neither is anyone else.

Today I made dinner rolls and Lentil Stew.  The rolls came out great.  

Dinner Rolls

• 1¼ cup water
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 3¼ cups bread flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2¼ tsp yeast

I used my Regal bread machine on dough cycle.  This made 16 rolls.

I read that you are supposed to bake ‘em with the lid on, so I put ‘em in the dutch oven and popped the lid on and let ‘em rise that way just sittin’ on the table out back in the sun for about 20 minutes, then I put ‘em into the solar oven for about 3 hours.  I took the lid off of the pot for about the last hour, but I don’t know how much that mattered.  This is so easy, and so flexible.  Seems kinda hard to ruin food as long as there is sunshine.

The Lentil Stew cooked way faster than I thought it would.  I gave it a jump-start by heating the water to boiling before adding it to the pot.  I’m sure that, as our solar cooking season progresses I’ll be able to skip that step.  

I just threw some ingredients into the pot, not following a recipe.  I’ll list the ingredients here for ya.

Solar Lentil Stew

• 1 lb lentils, rinsed
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 2 carrots, grated
• ½ onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp thyme, dried
• 2 handfuls barley, sorry, maybe ½ cup
• boiling water

I added enough boiling water to cover with about ¼ above the ingredients.  Then I set the covered  pot into the solar cooker and adjusted the reflector.  After about 2 hours I checked it and found it needed some more water.  I added about 1 ½ cups boiling water, gave it a stir and replaced the lid and cooked for about another hour and a half.

I know you can’t see it, but there is steam rolling off of that stew.  Such fabulous aromas coming from my backyard lately!

So, there ya go.  ’Bout the same as cooking in the house, on the stove, just took longer and needed less of my attention.  Oh yeah, and it didn’t heat up my house or cost anything to cook it!!!  Super Solar Supper!!!

Y’all need to let me know what I should try in the solar oven.  Cyndi said bread and I’m on it.  Lois said Chili Pie or Cheeseburger Pie,  I’m working out a recipe for that.  What else?

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